Pekeles, Ellen

As Vice President of Human Resources, Ellen’s mandate is to ensure that employees have the skills, commitment and passion to bring Vancity’s vision to life and that managers have the capability and leadership to create a workplace that is aligned with our values, engenders trust and enables effective performance.

Being a big ‘customer of HR’ herself throughout her career, Ellen understands that Human Resources must meet the business needs of Vancity by appropriately rewarding employees, providing consistent, timely and accurate service, ensuring that systems are in place to provide leaders with the right information to make effective people decisions and manage talent.

Ellen joined Vancity in 2006 as Vice President of Community Leadership and took on the role of Senior Vice President, Strategy in November 2007 where she was responsible for leading all aspects of corporate-wide strategy to move us towards our long term vision of ‘Redefining Wealth’.

Prior to joining Vancity, Ellen spent over 27 years in healthcare and was a Chief Operating Officer at Vancouver Coastal Health which included 11 municipalities and 14 First Nations’ communities with a population of nearly 300,000 people, 3,500 staff and a $350M budget. She previously served as Vice President, Programs in the North Shore Health Region and before that, spent nine years in Edmonton in a variety of senior positions in a regional health care system.

Ellen holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Therapy from University of Toronto (1979), a Master in Health Administration from University of Ottawa (1987) and is a Certified Health Executive (1992). Ellen was a CCHSA Health Systems Surveyor from 1997-2002.

Ellen is a Board member of the Vancity Community Foundation, the Credit Union Foundation of BC, Shareholder Association for Research & Education (SHARE) and the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative at St. Mary’s University in Halifax.

A life-long health and fitness enthusiast, you may see Ellen running, hiking, cycling or skiing near the North Shore home she shares with her husband, Howard. Ellen proudly carried the Olympic torch in Whistler for Vancity enviro Visa to promote a sustainable 2010 Olympic Games, with her number one fan, her niece Rachel, running beside her.